US Military Kicks Off Plan To Fill Social Networks With Fake Sock Puppet Accounts
from the who-are-your-friends-now? dept
You may recall that one of the things that came out in the big HBGary Federal data dump was that the US government had put out a request (that HBGary was thinking of bidding on) for software that would let the government manage a bunch of social networking profiles at once, in order to create a series of different online personas on different social networks that could all be easily controlled by one person. Well, HBGary Federal didn't get the account... but someone else did. Apparently a company called Ntrepid has scored the contract and the US military is getting ready to roll out these "sock puppet" online personas. Of course, it insists that all of this is targeting foreign individuals, not anyone in the US. And they promise it's not even going to be used on US-based social networks like Facebook or Twitter, but does anyone actually believe that's true? As for HBGary Federal, losing out on this contract may be the least of its problems. Congress is now investigating any contracts the government currently has with HBGary, along with partners-in-planning, Palantir and Berico.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: fake profiles, military, social networks, sockpuppets
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You have recieved an infraction at Facebook:
Administrative Note:
You just screamed, "BAN ME MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!!"
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if you can't control them join them and control them.
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Re: if you can't control them join them and control them.
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This is wrong in so many ways. When will the US gov. realize that the ends do not justify the means. This isn't an episode of 24.
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Nothing wrong with meeting the people!
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Re: Nothing wrong with meeting the people!
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Re: Re: Nothing wrong with meeting the people!
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Re: Nothing wrong with meeting the people!
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Re: Re: Nothing wrong with meeting the people!
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Re: Re: Re: Nothing wrong with meeting the people!
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Nothing wrong with meeting the people!
You know, for internal tracking and identification purposes.
This way they get to know who's saying what!
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Nothing wrong with meeting the people!
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Nothing wrong with meeting the people!
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Re: Re: Re: Nothing wrong with meeting the people!
Let them express their opinion on their own time, using their own money, not on taxpayer time and money.
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Re: Nothing wrong with meeting the people!
See FBI sting operations where FBI members help someone attempt to commit an act of terrorism they would otherwise not be capable of committing, or inclined to commit: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/us/politics/30fbi.html
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Re: Nothing wrong with meeting the people!
Misinformation is a powerful means of control.
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Re: Nothing wrong with meeting the people!
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TOS
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Re: TOS
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Re: Sock puppets
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Re:
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Re: Re:
Three words: Correct The Record
You need to go see your doctor right away, you've a bad case of naivete.
Social engineering on a massive scale is already happening, they're just finally getting around to trying to legitimize it.
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Now if it were the FBI or an organization within DHS, then yes, you might have a point.
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Re:
Kids are so cute at this age. So naive.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12571711
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Re: Re: "...won't target Americans"
Sheesh. Ever hear of Kent State?
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Re:
ORLY?
https://www.eff.org/issues/nsa-spying
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Re: Re:
1. Project MK-ULTRA - Testing of illicit narcotics on US Citizens, at timew w/o their knowledge
2. Operation Mockingbird - Covertly putting anticommunist messages into the US news media (appropos in this case)
3. OSINT - Forerunner to the NSA's Echelon SIG/INT program, collected and analyzed communications data from public sources within the United States
4. Nat'l Student Association: CIA payed college students and staff to spy on dissident groups on campuses across the country
5. The Robertson Panel: CIA investigated UFO reports in the DC area and elsewhere
6. Some CIA programs in the 70's involved intercepting domestic communiques of US citizens. They were discontinued in 1975 as illegal w/o warrants, but restarted under G.W. Bush. See Project Shamrock and Project Minaret as examples. HTLINGUAL intercepted and opened domestic mail of US citizens from the 50's to the 70's
Pretending the CIA does not or has not operate within our borders is downright silly...
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Re: The US military won't target Americans
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/03/10/new-york-man-faces-five-years-in-jail-for-linking-t o-online-videos/
What makes you think the military will behave any differently? Power always seeks more power, and takes it howeever and whenever it can.
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Re: Re: The US military won't target Americans
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“Whoever can conquer the street will one day conquer the state, for every form of power politics and any dictatorship-run state has its roots in the street.”
-Me
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heh. fake sock puppets.
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Re:
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Farmville
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Seriously Funny - Sock Puppets?!
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Re: Seriously Funny - Sock Puppets?!
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/10/fbi-tracking-device/
some kid made a joke on reddit, the fbi uses his profile to find out who his friends are and then plants a tracking device on one of his friends. Im sure this kid really isnt that important, but now he is being tracked and wiretapped and lord knows what else.
I am certainly not that important but I dont trust the government to realize that.
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Lack of education makes the grey/black astroturfing propaganda machine possible
The difference between today and when the internet began is that more people are buying into the authenticity of social networking accounts. The hive's IQ level has changed for the worst since the internet began. Even mass media is being duped or being complicit in the problem, thanks to lack of fact checking in journalism nowadays. They pull up shit from twitter every day and use it as a primary source. They might bring up 10 tweets on the same subject and only sometimes they have enough integrity to tell the viewer "this information is unconfirmed". But many viewers don't take that seriously because they're preconditioned to think social networking accounts are authentic human beings.
This might be the strongest propaganda tool that's ever existed. Stronger than any state-ran propaganda tool in history. And even scarier because anyone can run their own propaganda campaigns, not just governments. Government reaction when they figure this out is going to be internet kill switch legislation and maybe more anti-propaganda laws which will have no effect on the people who use proaganda, just like anti-spam laws never stopped spam from reaching my inbox. People have had spam and scam education on the internet before and I suppose that has worked to an extent. This type of threat needs to be covered too.
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On the subject of DOD entities targeting Americans.
Bottom Line: The DOD Intelligence Oversight program states that (Paraphrased) Intelligence personnel may not intentionally target, collect, retain, and disseminate information on U.S. persons CONUS or OCONUS. Information pertaining to U.S. persons posing a threat to DoD personnel, resources or activities, is criminal information and falls under the purview of law enforcement and security. The key word here is intelligence personnel. The argument that "oh, those pysops guys spied on senators" holds no water, army pysops falls under special forces, not MI.
In response to Chris, the US military is not prohibited from conducting operations in the US, the US Military, when under federal control, is prohibited from enforcing US laws by Posse Comitatus. This is why the Coast Guard is not legally considered a military force and falls under DHS and not DOD.
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Re: On the subject of DOD entities targeting Americans.
People seem to forget that things change with time.
This sort of thing should not be allowed to get off the ground
The road to hell is be paved with good intentions
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Facebook trolls
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